Diverters for conveyors are known and function to change the conveyance direction of or divert an article that is being conveyed along a conveyor. For example, a diverter may include a plurality of roller wheels that may be pivotable between a non-diverting orientation, with their axes of rotation being generally transverse to the direction of conveyance of the conveyor (such as, for example, generally parallel to the axes of rotation of the rollers of a roller conveyor) and a diverting orientation, where their axes of rotation are skewed, so that articles conveyed over the wheels are diverted at an angle with respect to the direction of conveyance of the conveyor.
An example of such a diverter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,983,988, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Two rows of diverter wheels are rotatably driven via a drive motor positioned generally between and below the rows of diverter wheels. The diverter wheels of the rows are pivoted via a pneumatic cylinder and mechanical linkage system, whereby extension and retraction of the cylinder causes a corresponding movement of the linkages to pivot the wheels. The linkage arrangement causes a greater skew angle of the downstream row of wheels than the upstream row of wheels.